Eastwood and Willett rise to the Challenge
By TMX Archives on 27th Apr 07
IT'S been a long-time coming, but boy was it worth it...The 2007 British Two-stroke Championship finally got under way at the fantastic Canada Heights circuit on Sunday.
MCFederation and the team behind last year's highly successful DEP Challenge have got together to run a British Championship event combining 125cc and 250cc two-stroke machines only, running Expert and Junior classes, and everyone was welcome including top national stars Mark Eastwood, Stuart Flockhart, Ryan Voase, Dave Willett and last year's champion Ben Taylor.
With somewhere in the region of 400 riders registered and taking part at this first round, qualifying was a blast.
In the 125cc class, Nicky Watts scorched to a superb qualifying time and set the pace for others to follow, while in the 250cc class it was local hero, Mark Eastwood, who got to grips with the Swanley circuit and dominated the timing sheets.
Junior 125cc class was first off the line with DEP even providing umbrellas for all 40 riders on the line to make sure no-one suffered with the heat.
Steve Garrett took advantage of his great starts and put in three dominating races for a much deserved maximum. He was followed home over the line by Josh Silver, Brett Smith, Kieran Porter, Michael Randell and Steve Harris, all these riders put on a great display for the cheering spectators.
Junior group B saw three different winners, Lee Baggs, Daniel Haswell and James Berrill. These three swapped places all day in what turned out to be some close, exciting racing. Behind these three you had Darren Reed, Anthony Weaver and Daniel Lunt battling for fourth, fifth and sixth.
The Expert 125cc races were a pleasure to watch. David Willett took the first two wins after battling through traffic to get to the front in each, but race three was a different story.
2007 British Two-stroke Championship/ DEP Challenge
Rd 1 - Canada Heights, Swanley
Expert 125cc: 1 David Willett 132, 2 Nicky Watts 126, 3 Stuart Edmonds 108, 4 Jim Davies 99, 5 Matt Ridgeway 96, 6 Ryan Hamblin 84, 7 Paul Willis 73, 8 Luke Kennett 70, 9 Steve Bixby 67, 10 Brett Wheeler 62.
Expert 250cc: 1 Mark Eastwood 135, 2 Ryan Voase 120, 3 Stuart Flockhart 120, 4 David Willett 105, 5 Ben Taylor 89, 6 Chad Yarranton 87, 7 James Lassu 78, 8 David Andre 70, 9 Anthony James 67, 10 Jason Higgs 64.
Junior 125cc: 1 Adam Reynolds 129, 2 Paul Shires 120, 3 Sean Stevens 114, 4 Sam Holloway 100, 5 Aaron Wakefield 84, 6 Chris Glover 81, 7 David Rawlins 75, 8 Stuart Dyerson 71, 9 Ryan Tomkins 69, 10 Sam Arbon 66.
Junior 250cc: 1 Ricky Lethaby 135, 2 Alex Smith 120, 3 Eddy Carr 111, 4 Kenneth Fuller 103, 5 Arron Sewell 101, 6 John Butler 92, 7 Drew Smith 88, 8 Ian Fagg 86, 9 Adam Wheeler 70, 10 Ashley Hudson 68.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, April 27, 2007.